"The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it."
- Dr. Josef Mengele Persecution
The Jews have been persecuted all throughout history, during the Black Death and in the Spanish Inquisition. The Holocaust in WWII was just another example of the horrible atrocities that they faced. Not only were they forced into labor camps and mass executed, but they were forced into being guinea pigs for inhumane experiments. The Nazis at the head of these experiments were doctors, also known as "The Angels of Death."
"The Angels of Death"
Unspeakable horrors were inflicted upon the Jewish prisoners in Nazi Concentration camps. Experiments at the hands of Nazi doctors were performed on the prisoners in the name of medical research. These doctors were collectively known as "The Angels of Death." Although the doctors knew that what they were performing was cruel and morally wrong, none attempted to stop it. As the war drew near to an end, the burning of evidence and massive cleaning jobs were performed by the Nazi doctors to ensure the allies didn't know what was happening. Unfortunately for them, the survivors of these experiments didn't keep their experiences to themselves. The survivors spread their tragic stories for all to hear.
Dr. Josef Mengele
One of the leading Nazi doctors at the center of the experiments was Dr. Josef Mengele. He conducted many horrific procedures on the Jewish prisoners, specializing in twins. Dr. Mengele was obsessed with determining exactly how twins were formed and finding patterns in their genes. Dr. Mengele was so fixated on twins because he wanted to impregnate the women of the Superior Race with twins so as to repopulate the world faster. Dr. Mengele was never tried for his actions.
Dr. Carl Clauberg
Another of the Nazi doctors was Dr. Carl Clauberg. He was a former Gynocologist, but upon arriving at Auschwitz, became one of the most systematic killers there. He dealt mostly with the experiments on women, especially those who were pregnate or of carrying age. He was also never tried for his experiments.
Dr. Herta Oberheuser
Dr. Herta Oberheuser was the only famous woman Nazi doctor in the Holocaust. She experimented mainly on children and enjoyed experiments dealing with oil and evipan injections as well as the removal of vital organs and limbs. Hers were some of the most painful and gruesome experiments, most resulting in death. She was the only woman to be put on the Doctor Trials and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. She was released early and began practicing as a family physician agian. A short time later, her license was again revoked for unknown reasons.
Dr. Karl Brandt
Hilter's personal physician was a doctor who was involved with the experiments on Jewish prisoners. Dr. Karl Brandt never conducted an experiment but he was one of the main killer of the ill, weak, old, or very young prisoners (the "useless" prisoners). He was found guilty in the Doctor Trials and put to death on June 2, 1948.
Doctors at the Nuremburg "Doctor" Trials
Dr. Johann Kremer replaced another Nazi doctor at Auschwitz who was unable to work. Dr. Kremer wasn't so much brutal as he was disturbing. After injecting his patients with deadly chemicals he would questione them about weight and what they last ate, etc. In some cases he even photographed them. Dr. Kremer was sentenced to and served all of ten years imprisonment.
The Experiments
The "Angels of Death" conducted over 30 experiments on Jewish inmates in Concentration Camps. These experiments were performed in the name of research. The inmates who were forced to participate suffered terrible pain, permanent disfiguration, and death. Surgeries were performed on patients without anesthetics. Some of these surgeries were amputations, open heart surgery, internal organ removal, and brain surgery. If the patient did survive these experiments, they were often shot to prevent the Allies from learning about the ongoings in the event that they attacked a Concentration camp.
Some of the most infamous experiments:
High Altitude
Freezing
Sulfanilamide
Twins
Bone, muscle, and joint transplantation
High Altitude
These experiments were conducted mainly by the doctors at Dachau. The goal of these procedures was to determine the exact effects of high-altitude ejection on the German pilots. To simulate the high altitude, the Jewish prisoners were placed into low-pressure chambers. The changes in their bodily chemistry was recorded by the doctors. The leading doctor at Dachau, Rascher, performed brain surgery on the still-living victims. He determined that death was caused by tiny air bubbles in the brain's blood vessels.
Man inside the low-pressure chamber
Effects of the high altitude experiments
200 victims: 80 died, the remainder executed
Freezing
This is also known as the Hypothermia Experiments. Doctors used this experiment to save the German pilots who had been ejected from their planes into freezing water. The doctors performed the experiment in two ways. One was that they held the prisoners in an ice bath until their body temperature dropped below 79.7°F. The other experiment was performed by stripping the victim of all clothes and then strapping them to tables in the freezing cold. In both experiments, the doctors monitored the reactions the victims' bodies underwent, such as foaming at the mouth, changes in heart rates, muscle reflexes, and loss of consciousness among other reactions. When the doctors felt that the victims' bodies were adaquately cooled, they practiced different ways to re-warm them. These tactics included scalding baths, heated blankets, and even naked (normal temperature) women. Some victims died as a result of hypothermia while others died from being re-warmed too quickly.
Victim inside the ice water bath
An unknown number of prisoners were subjected to Hypothermia: 80-100 died
Sulfanilamide
This experiment was used to benefit the German soldiers. The Nazi doctors inflicted war-like wounds on the Jewish victims. They then aggrevated the wounds by rubbing ground glass and wood chippings into the wounds to infect them. They also tied off blood vessels leading to the wounds to simulate war medical practices. Once gangrene set in, the doctors used Sulfanilamide and other sterilization drugs to determing the effectiveness in stopping the gangrene. During all of these procedures, the victims were given no pain killers or anesthetics. Some died as a result of the gangrene and other infections. Similar experiments were conducted using poisons and mustard gas.
Jadwiga Dzido was a victim of the Sulfanilamide procedures. She survived but was left scarred for life.
The statistics for this experiment are unknown.
Twins
Dr. Mengele was at the center of the Twin experiments. Many different experiments were performed on the twins. Dr. Mengele used these experiments to try to find a way to more effectively increase the German race. He injected the children's eyes with different chemicals and dyes in an attempt to make them identical. He also tested the reactions of their bodies when their heart were injected with cholorform. Dr. Mengele occasionaly performed horrific procedures on only one twin. The other twin was informed of the procedures but never harmed. Dr. Mengele recorded the reactions of the unharmed twin. Also, Dr. Mengele attempted to create Siamese Twins. He cut open each twin and stitched them back together, fusing blood vesels, skin, and organs together. Most of his creations would live for a day or two until they died of either infection or from complications due to mismatched blood transfusions. While the Siamese Twins lived, they suffered excruciating pain from the procedures, and during the procedures were given no pain killers or anesthetics.
These are some of the twins, aka "Mengele's Twins."
1000 pairs of twins were experimented on: 200 survived
Bone, Muscle, and Joint Transplantation and Amputation These experiments were used to determine if a limb, joint, or muscle could be successfully transplanted to another person. Limbs were amputated and organs were extracted from a living patient without anesthesia and transplanted onto another victim. Most victims suffered horrible pain, disfiguration, and permanent disabilities and side affects from the experiments.
Bodies after the amputations and limbs about to be transplanted.
The Ethics of Using the Results of Nazi Experimentation
The Nazi Experimentations affect us still today. As brutal as the experiments were, some were successful. Doctors diagnosed what cause air embolisms in pilots, the effects of certain chemicals and vaccines on the body, and made progress with artificial insemination. Scientists today struggle with the option of using data collected in the experiments as basis for other more humane experimentations. Publicizing the data could be seen as support of the Holocaust Experiments, whereas keeping them confidential could be seen as pretending it never happened.
For example, the Nazis experimented with hypothermia in their Freezing Experiments. There are very few humane ways to study hypothermia today. Scientists are struggling to decide whether or not the data collected should be used. Since many people were tortured by the Nazis and many died, the data is morally tainted. On the other hand, the data that was collected could be used to save many lives today.
If the data found during the Holocaust isn't used, people who deny the Holocaust existed have less to challenge their views. In a way, the data is evidence of the Holocaust. Neo-Nazis who deny the Holocaust all together cannot disprove the data exists if it is publicized. If the data stays private, there is less evidence of the torture implemented by the Nazis.
Contradictorily, there is no proof that the results of the experimentations are medically sound. There is no evidence that the doctors who participated in the Holocaust Medical Experiments had a medical license. The experiments conducted could have been performed by people with no medical background. Therefore, they wouldn't have known what the data meant. If the data is published and used, there is a chance that the data is incorrect and could put the lives of people today in jeopardy.
As of today, the medical data collected by the Nazi doctors stays confidential. Whether or not it stays confidential is to be determined.
The Holocaust Medical Experiments
"The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it."
- Dr. Josef Mengele
Persecution
The Jews have been persecuted all throughout history, during the Black Death and in the Spanish Inquisition. The Holocaust in WWII was just another example of the horrible atrocities that they faced. Not only were they forced into labor camps and mass executed, but they were forced into being guinea pigs for inhumane experiments. The Nazis at the head of these experiments were doctors, also known as "The Angels of Death."
"The Angels of Death"
Unspeakable horrors were inflicted upon the Jewish prisoners in Nazi Concentration camps. Experiments at the hands of Nazi doctors were performed on the prisoners in the name of medical research. These doctors were collectively known as "The Angels of Death." Although the doctors knew that what they were performing was cruel and morally wrong, none attempted to stop it. As the war drew near to an end, the burning of evidence and massive cleaning jobs were performed by the Nazi doctors to ensure the allies didn't know what was happening. Unfortunately for them, the survivors of these experiments didn't keep their experiences to themselves. The survivors spread their tragic stories for all to hear.
One of the leading Nazi doctors at the center of the experiments was Dr. Josef Mengele. He conducted many horrific procedures on the Jewish prisoners, specializing in twins. Dr. Mengele was obsessed with determining exactly how twins were formed and finding patterns in their genes. Dr. Mengele was so fixated on twins because he wanted to impregnate the women of the Superior Race with twins so as to repopulate the world faster. Dr. Mengele was never tried for his actions.
Another of the Nazi doctors was Dr. Carl Clauberg. He was a former Gynocologist, but upon arriving at Auschwitz, became one of the most systematic killers there. He dealt mostly with the experiments on women, especially those who were pregnate or of carrying age. He was also never tried for his experiments.
Dr. Herta Oberheuser was the only famous woman Nazi doctor in the Holocaust. She experimented mainly on children and enjoyed experiments dealing with oil and evipan injections as well as the removal of vital organs and limbs. Hers were some of the most painful and gruesome experiments, most resulting in death. She was the only woman to be put on the Doctor Trials and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. She was released early and began practicing as a family physician agian. A short time later, her license was again revoked for unknown reasons.
Hilter's personal physician was a doctor who was involved with the experiments on Jewish prisoners. Dr. Karl Brandt never conducted an experiment but he was one of the main killer of the ill, weak, old, or very young prisoners (the "useless" prisoners). He was found guilty in the Doctor Trials and put to death on June 2, 1948.
Dr. Johann Kremer replaced another Nazi doctor at Auschwitz who was unable to work. Dr. Kremer wasn't so much brutal as he was disturbing. After injecting his patients with deadly chemicals he would questione them about weight and what they last ate, etc. In some cases he even photographed them. Dr. Kremer was sentenced to and served all of ten years imprisonment.
The Experiments
The "Angels of Death" conducted over 30 experiments on Jewish inmates in Concentration Camps. These experiments were performed in the name of research. The inmates who were forced to participate suffered terrible pain, permanent disfiguration, and death. Surgeries were performed on patients without anesthetics. Some of these surgeries were amputations, open heart surgery, internal organ removal, and brain surgery. If the patient did survive these experiments, they were often shot to prevent the Allies from learning about the ongoings in the event that they attacked a Concentration camp.
Some of the most infamous experiments:
High Altitude
These experiments were conducted mainly by the doctors at Dachau. The goal of these procedures was to determine the exact effects of high-altitude ejection on the German pilots. To simulate the high altitude, the Jewish prisoners were placed into low-pressure chambers. The changes in their bodily chemistry was recorded by the doctors. The leading doctor at Dachau, Rascher, performed brain surgery on the still-living victims. He determined that death was caused by tiny air bubbles in the brain's blood vessels.
200 victims: 80 died, the remainder executed
Freezing
This is also known as the Hypothermia Experiments. Doctors used this experiment to save the German pilots who had been ejected from their planes into freezing water. The doctors performed the experiment in two ways. One was that they held the prisoners in an ice bath until their body temperature dropped below 79.7°F. The other experiment was performed by stripping the victim of all clothes and then strapping them to tables in the freezing cold. In both experiments, the doctors monitored the reactions the victims' bodies underwent, such as foaming at the mouth, changes in heart rates, muscle reflexes, and loss of consciousness among other reactions. When the doctors felt that the victims' bodies were adaquately cooled, they practiced different ways to re-warm them. These tactics included scalding baths, heated blankets, and even naked (normal temperature) women. Some victims died as a result of hypothermia while others died from being re-warmed too quickly.
Sulfanilamide
This experiment was used to benefit the German soldiers. The Nazi doctors inflicted war-like wounds on the Jewish victims. They then aggrevated the wounds by rubbing ground glass and wood chippings into the wounds to infect them. They also tied off blood vessels leading to the wounds to simulate war medical practices. Once gangrene set in, the doctors used Sulfanilamide and other sterilization drugs to determing the effectiveness in stopping the gangrene. During all of these procedures, the victims were given no pain killers or anesthetics. Some died as a result of the gangrene and other infections. Similar experiments were conducted using poisons and mustard gas.
The statistics for this experiment are unknown.
Twins
Dr. Mengele was at the center of the Twin experiments. Many different experiments were performed on the twins. Dr. Mengele used these experiments to try to find a way to more effectively increase the German race. He injected the children's eyes with different chemicals and dyes in an attempt to make them identical. He also tested the reactions of their bodies when their heart were injected with cholorform. Dr. Mengele occasionaly performed horrific procedures on only one twin. The other twin was informed of the procedures but never harmed. Dr. Mengele recorded the reactions of the unharmed twin. Also, Dr. Mengele attempted to create Siamese Twins. He cut open each twin and stitched them back together, fusing blood vesels, skin, and organs together. Most of his creations would live for a day or two until they died of either infection or from complications due to mismatched blood transfusions. While the Siamese Twins lived, they suffered excruciating pain from the procedures, and during the procedures were given no pain killers or anesthetics.
1000 pairs of twins were experimented on: 200 survived
Bone, Muscle, and Joint Transplantation and Amputation
These experiments were used to determine if a limb, joint, or muscle could be successfully transplanted to another person. Limbs were amputated and organs were extracted from a living patient without anesthesia and transplanted onto another victim. Most victims suffered horrible pain, disfiguration, and permanent disabilities and side affects from the experiments.
The Ethics of Using the Results of Nazi Experimentation
The Nazi Experimentations affect us still today. As brutal as the experiments were, some were successful. Doctors diagnosed what cause air embolisms in pilots, the effects of certain chemicals and vaccines on the body, and made progress with artificial insemination. Scientists today struggle with the option of using data collected in the experiments as basis for other more humane experimentations. Publicizing the data could be seen as support of the Holocaust Experiments, whereas keeping them confidential could be seen as pretending it never happened.
For example, the Nazis experimented with hypothermia in their Freezing Experiments. There are very few humane ways to study hypothermia today. Scientists are struggling to decide whether or not the data collected should be used. Since many people were tortured by the Nazis and many died, the data is morally tainted. On the other hand, the data that was collected could be used to save many lives today.
If the data found during the Holocaust isn't used, people who deny the Holocaust existed have less to challenge their views. In a way, the data is evidence of the Holocaust. Neo-Nazis who deny the Holocaust all together cannot disprove the data exists if it is publicized. If the data stays private, there is less evidence of the torture implemented by the Nazis.
Contradictorily, there is no proof that the results of the experimentations are medically sound. There is no evidence that the doctors who participated in the Holocaust Medical Experiments had a medical license. The experiments conducted could have been performed by people with no medical background. Therefore, they wouldn't have known what the data meant. If the data is published and used, there is a chance that the data is incorrect and could put the lives of people today in jeopardy.
As of today, the medical data collected by the Nazi doctors stays confidential. Whether or not it stays confidential is to be determined.
Sources
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